Neil Best
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, then returned in 1985. His SportsWatch column debuted on Sept.
It was set up to be an overture, the scene-setter for what might have been an epic, operatic early autumn of New York baseball. Instead it was more of a sad trombone sound.
The Yankees went quietly on the field Tuesday, managing three hits and no runs against four Astros pitchers, only one of whom is a Cy Young candidate, in the American League wild-card game at Yankee Stadium.
Then they went relatively quietly in the locker room, where if the mood could be summed up in one word it would be this: shrug.